This invention relates to containers such as boxes, for example, of the type used to mail check blanks to bank customers and in which the box includes a top-opening lid to enable the box to be used subsequently to store cancelled checks.
The typical procedure by which a bank customer obtains check blanks is that the bank, upon notification by the customer, instructs the check printer to prepare the checks which then are sent directly from the check printer to the customer. In recent years it has become a common practice for the printer to package the check blanks and send them to the customer in a box which may be saved by the customer for later use to store his cancelled checks. The most common type of box used has been a top-loading, top-opening variety. The printer-package typically receives the box from the manufacturer in a partially glued configuration in which the lid is unglued to the tray front flap. The tray portion of the box will have been glued and folded to a flat configuration by the manufacturer. The printer then erects the box, inserts the checks and closes the lid. In order to protect the checks and the box when they are shipped to the customer, the box is usually inserted into an outer, sleeve-like, protective box which also must be folded and sealed. The check blanks thus packaged then are mailed to the customer who tears away the outer box. Sometimes, the check printer has glued the box lid to the box tray which requires the user to tear the lid flap away from the tray flap to enable the cover of the inner box to be opened.
The foregoing practice is not free from difficulty. It requires multiple operations by the box manufacturer who must die cut two blanks, one for each of the inner and outer boxes, usually from different types of sheet stock. Typically, the inner box must be partly glued and folded in an operation which requires right angle and/or timed gluing and folding techniques. Such techniques typically are much slower than straight line and untimed manufacturing techniques. Also, it may be necessary for the manufacturer to partly glue the outer box to its sleeve configuration. Multiple operations also are required by the check printer who must first partly erect the inner box, load the checks and then close (and sometimes glue) the lid. The loaded, sealed inner box then must be inserted into the outer, protective box. This requires erection of the outer box so that it can receive the inner box. The end flaps of the outer box then must be folded and glued. The foregoing practice requires a time consuming and costly right angle and/or timed gluing and/or folding operation.
Also among the difficulties sometimes encountered by the user is that the removal of the outer box is awkward. Sometimes, in order to open the outer box, the user finds it easier to tear open the end flaps. Because the inner box usually fits tightly within the outer protective box, it is difficult to withdraw the inner box through the opened end flaps of the outer box. The end flaps of the inner box, however, then are exposed and it is sometimes easier to open the inner box without removing it from the outer box by simply tearing open the end flaps of the inner box. This destroys the subsequent utility of the inner box as a top-opening box for storing checks.
It is among the primary objects of the invention to provide an improved single container blank which eliminates a number of the foregoing steps and which requires less labor and cost to package and send checks or the like in a reuseable storage box.